Not to give him any more attention than he deserves, but if we look at the case of Tiger Woods, we can learn a lot about how people will always fill the void if nothing is being said. It took him excruciatingly long to come out with his side of the story, and what happened? Everyone and their mother came out with their side of the story. Now, if Woods had come out with his side at a much more reasonable pace, the fourteen or so women most likely all wouldn’t have tried to claim they had the inside scoop.

The exact same thing happens in business. If something negative and newsworthy happens, and a business keeps their lips sealed for more than an ample amount of time that it would take to whip up a press release, quick tape a YouTube video and start tweeting about the issue, people will begin to fill that void. Whether it’s with assumptions and rumors, or just plain bashing the brand for the simple fact that nothing’s been done.

So, the moral of the story is that if you want to avoid the rumors and the negative chatter, especially in a place as visible as the web, it’s imperative to create a plan of action for public relations mishaps and act as quickly and efficiently as possible.

However, on the other hand, a void can work to your advantage – but only if you already have a very loyal fan base. Take Apple for example, they rarely come out with information about new products until it’s time for Steve Jobs to give his keynote. This void often creates a lot of hype, and positive (although potentially led astray) rumors.  So, if you are going to allow a void, make sure it’s only about things that will create hype around your brand.

Photo: Chelseaッ

So, how exactly to you create massive, organic growth in the social media sphere? Well, it takes patience and a firm understanding of the following tips.

#1: Create something worth paying attention to. It may seem like an obvious tip, but even after social media had its year and the hype has begun to die down and it has entered mainstream acceptance in the marketing industry, there are still people making the same mistakes. In order to get people to start paying attention, make it about their favorite subject: themselves. Instead of talking about you (or your brand, in this case), ask for their opinions or embrace topics that are relevant to what you do and to your audience. Then, to get them to keep paying attention, it’s essential to open up and share. Give fans and followers an inside look into your organization and the people behind it.

#2: Build connections. Focusing on your audience will large in part aid in creating a connection with your consumers, but there are other strategies that can help turn regular old customers into brand advocates. Contests where winners are chosen and featured are one way to build a connection with a select few. Giveaways and promotions (such as discount codes) are another way to keep your audience’s connection and help build an affinity towards your brand. Another simple strategy that will help build relationships is just simply to acknowledge your fans and followers. Did they retweet your latest blog post? Let them know that you’re appreciative with a thank you tweet or direct message.

#3: Reach out. One of the easiest ways to gain a large, genuine audience is to promote, promote, promote. Link up with influencers in your market on Twitter and work out a deal where they tweet and blog about your company or product. Do something innovative and unique enough in the social media sphere that your story is guaranteed to attract some press. When people find out about you, and search you out on social media to find out more, the connection is a lot more genuine than if they’re just thinking “Hmm, I guess I’ll follow them.”

The last and final step, is to have patience and be persistence. A large fan base and following won’t happen overnight, but it if you keep it up and constantly experiment with new strategies, it will happen.

photo: foxofthetrail

Coca Cola’s Facebook Fan Page has over 4 million fans. Pepsi doesn’t even compete, with less than 300 thousand fans. Could you imagine a Super Bowl with no Pepsi commercials? No magnetic Justin Timberlake to drag in (pun intended) millions of impressions?

In the past, Pepsi has spent over $140 million on Super Bowl ads, telecasting to the nation. Not this year, though. Pepsi is switching up their strategy. The brand wants comparable levels of engagement with consumers and fans. The Pepsi Refresh Project will grant millions of dollars to fund great ideas. We think this is really great — supporting entrepreneurship! This is exactly the type of campaign that will get a lot of eyes, and has the potential to go viral. Choosing to be social over Super Bowl superstars…

Is this a gamble? Maybe — for a company that spends practically all their marketing and advertising dollars on television spots. But, we think the brand is getting into the right mindset. The campaign has the potential to connect a global community, and provide hope for entrepreneurs all over the world. The dollars that they’ll be spending will have further reach, but more importantly… lasting impact. Social media measurement can be a solid base for brand measurement.

Additionally, it makes sense, for the Internet (more specifically, social media) has proven to be a sound strategy for people and products alike, aimed at today’s generation. The massive brand should be embracing this opportunity, even if it does mean moving away from the appeal of the baby boomers or even the millennial generation. Way to go, Pepsi.

Is Pepsi redefining what important? What really brings out brand loyalty? What does this fight for marketing dollars mean? Share your opinions with us in the comments!

With that, do you know someone who has a great idea and can make a positive impact? Pepsi is collecting 1,000 ideas every month. You can submit & vote here until Jan. 13th.

If you’ve taken a social science course at any point in time, you’ve probably heard this exact scenario, or at least something similar, laid out before.

You’re standing in line at Starbucks debating whether you should just go with the skinny latte laced with a couple Sweet and Low’s, or totally splurge and go for Venti, 2 percent mocha with extra whip. You decide, with the holidays and all, it might be best to go with the slightly healthier option and step up to the plate to order. The young girl scribbles it down on the red cup as you hand over a crisp bill. As you get your change, you glance down at the tip jar. It’s brimming with coins and paper currency (because, again, it’s the holidays), so you nonchalantly slip your left over change into the jar to join the party.

Now, when the holidays are over, you repeat the exact same process (again, choosing the lower cal beverage option after devouring too many holiday party treats). However, with everyone out of the giving spirit, the tip jar is practically empty, and you follow suit, and slip your change in your pocket upon receiving it from the cashier.

So often, we rely on society to tell us what the social norms are that it essentially becomes subconscious. Just as in the examples above, society’s actions can dictate how we behave, and the same holds true for social media. Did you ever notice that you’ll almost automatically follow @Twitteruser1, with 508,970 followers, yet completely ignore @Twitteruser2, with only 32 followers? It’s because we associate a value message with all of those followers; the large following signifies that the user is providing content of value (whether it’s true or not is another story…). On the flip side, we automatically assume that the second user with the same amount of followers as there are students in a third grade classroom isn’t saying much that we could apply to our own lives, learn from or get a laugh out of.

While we will always promote organic, natural growth, it is equally important to focus on the numbers game, because it will send a strong message to potential fans and followers. Now how do you experience explosive, yet organic growth? Well, that’s a whole other story for another blog post…

photo: eecue

The party invite, right? Your audience is no different. Of course, having a call-to-action that requires contributing or purchasing is necessary, but it’s just as important to make social emails a part of your campaign.

Creating emails with a social call-to-action, will increase engagement, thus increasing brand affinity. It could be as simple as a request to join your organization on Facebook and Twitter or could be more complex, like inviting your audience to join in on a video contest on YouTube. Either way, it’s essential to integrate your social media outreach into your email marketing campaigns. Not only does it increase engagement on your social media sites, but it also can increase your fan base, open rate and brand affinity.

photo: pintavelloso

Marketing traditionally is a very one-sided conversation. Even in the digital age, with banner ads and SMS offers sent to your phone, there often is very little room for conversation; for consumers to offer feedback and share their opinions. Each day, more and more tech savvy consumers are entering your markets, who often will be taking to their blog (little known fact: 20,000 blogs are started every day) and Twitter to talk about their life, opinions and musings, which often can include brands.

You see, social media gives everyone a voice. Instead of being squawked at by your television set, or being bombarded with Netflix pop-ups (yeah, we said it…) when you’re trolling your favorite site for worthwhile news, consumers are now able to broadcast to the masses, just as marketers have in the past, via social media sites. But, more importantly, they are able to join the conversation. And, that’s exactly why social media, and social media marketing, are here to stay. Because, just as much as brands will always need their voice, people will crave their share of attention, too.

One of the first reasons why it’s important to recognize that it’s better to start on social media sooner, rather than later, is three-fold:

1. You’ll miss out on participating, and potentially leveraging, all the conversations surrounding your brand.
2. Joining later, will only make it harder to cut through the clutter and gain a sizeable audience.
3. Social media has a learning curve, and is always changing, so it’s important to get familiar with it and learn what works before your competition even starts.

You see, online, whether it’s to your face or behind your back, people will talk. But, in order to lead, manage or capitalize on those conversations, you need to be there. Even more importantly than being there, is knowing the medium’s norms, culture and language and having a distinct, yet flexible strategy in place.

photo: brigerking

What stops them in their tracks? Figuring out how to measure the success of their social media endeavors. Well, as with most marketing campaigns, the best way to track success is to create goals.

Let’s say I own a small online retail shop and I want to reach out to consumers using Facebook and Twitter. I would need to come up with goals that could easily be measured. My goals could read as follows:

Adding social media to my marketing activities will impact sales by reaching out to a wider audience over six months. And, when that happens, the added value of business will be $40,000, which will give me a ROI of $20,000.

Then I can track this hypothesis. Say I want to see how my social media outreach has affected my sales. I could offer a special promotion to all of my fans and followers, “Are you a Fan? Spend $50 and enter FBFAN to get $10 off.” And, I can track how many of those fans made purchases using the offer.

Part of my goal also included reaching a wider audience. In order to measure this goal, I should track how my audience grows over time, looking at the increases in fans and followers.

Since it is social media, after all, I’ll also want to see if my fans and followers have recommended my site to friends. A few ways to track this is seeing where people are visit your site from and if they’re being referred there. Also, looking at the number of retweets in a given time will help track your reach.

The thing with social media is that it’s constantly evolving, so things may not always go according to plan (sometimes it’s way better than you planned). If measurements fall short of your goals, it’s time to reevaluate what you want to accomplish using social media. Maybe you’ll find that it does nothing for sales in the short-term, but does wonders for customer service, thus creating more loyal customers than before. Social media is constantly evolving, so plan on growing and learning with it.

How many people are thirsty for charity: water updates? Over 1 million on the organization’s Twitter account (and thousands more on each employee’s Twitter account). Over 44,000 on Facebook. About 1 million  on YouTube.

They have used social media to promote events, such as Twestival. Twestival was an event that raised money around the world for charity: water and was organized using Twitter, drew in over $250,000 in donations, but most importantly, the event took place in 80 cities across the globe.

Their website even caters to the social media addicted, by offering borninseptember.org, a site where people that were born in September can create a profile where they can collect donations that go to charity: water in lieu of birthday gifts. So far 1,646 (including one of our own) have given up mediocre and unnecessary birthday presents for charity: water.

The key takeaway from charity: water’s practices? They treat their social media fans and followers like friends –constantly letting them know what’s happening within the organization. They let people know about campaigns, especially ones that are location specific (which, hello, only adds to ROI), they talk about events (like how Blake Lively hosted one of their recent events), they talk about the people they help (”Not having to share water with animals makes us feel more human” says woman with a new village well), they upload a picture everyday that either shows what they’re up to that day or something they’ve done recently and much more.

So, you’re probably thinking, “I’m a CPA and I own my own business…what exactly could I talk about that would be interesting?” Well, you’d be surprised… Blogs for small businesses such as accounting firms and law firms are a great way to show future clients your voice, such as offering tax tips to small business owners or starting a blog and commenting on legal issues in the news. Twitter and Facebook are great for small retail businesses, offering deals to fans and followers and letting them know about upcoming sales. There are tons of ways to apply what charity: water teaches us to your own business.

Well, many marketers are trying to control the conversation, as well, but the key is not to shut them up, or worse, not even join in. The key is to be proactive, address any of those bad-mouthers (which will make people think twice before they say anything less than nice) and help guide the conversation when you can.